Two Washington Metro Police officers - both black - were responding to a household burglary alarm in a posh District of Columbia neighbourhood and encountered a 64-year-old black man carrying two bags. When they questioned him, they say he became "loud and boisterous". They ordered him to the ground.

At that point, a local resident - a middle-aged white woman named Jody Westby - came out from her house and confronted the police.

She instructed her housekeeper to record the events. She said she knew the man - a local worker - and that the police had no right to detain him. She told the officers that she was a lawyer and, upon learning the address of the burglary report, that they weren't even on the right street.

She grabbed the detained man's hand and said she was leaving, telling the police to "please leave our neighbourhood".

The officer reluctantly let Ms Westby and the man go.

As she walked away, Ms Westby said: "Just because he's black doesn't mean he's here to rob a house. He works for us. He's been in this neighbourhood for 30 years."

A mom of two young children is wondering: What's in ice cream sandwiches these days?

Christie Watson's kids love eating ice cream. But one recent morning, she saw an uneaten ice cream sandwich sitting on her patio table. When she looked closer, she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"I noticed that my son had left his ice cream sandwich outside," she said, "and I was wondering why is there still ice cream in there?"

The Wal-Mart Great Value sandwich had barely melted 12 hours later....even though it was an 80-degree morning.

Watson says she grabbed a second sandwich and left that out overnight, and ended up with the same result.

"Monday I came out and looked at it," she said, "and there was still ice cream there. So I thought to myself: what am I feeding to my children?"

We wondered, too, so we did a test.

We set out a Wal-Mart Great Value sandwich, a Klondike Bar sandwich, and a cup of Haagen Dazs in the hot sun for 30 minutes.

The Haagen Dazs melted quickly into a puddle.
The Klondike sandwich melted to a fair extent.
The Wal-Mart sandwich, though it melted a bit, remained the most solid in appearance, and still looked like a sandwich.
We contacted Wal-Mart, which released the following statement:

"Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream.

Ice cream with more cream will generally melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches.

In the frozen aisles, Great Value ice cream sandwiches are one of the top sellers, and we are glad to be able to offer a great treat that families love."

Other sources in the dairy business tell us that despite the slow melt rate of store brand ice cream sandwiches, they are just as healthy as other ice cream and meet all FDA guidelines. In addition, they contain less fat, so may be better on your waistline.

What's in That Sandwich?

A check of ingredients confirms why Haagen Dazs melts quickly, like ice cream from days of yore.

Wal-Mart's ingredient list includes corn syrup, guar gum, and cellulose gum.
Unilever's Klondike Bars's ingredient list is very similar to Walmart's, with similar gums added.
Haagen Dazs contains just cream, milk, sugar, and eggs, and vanilla, but no corn syrup or gums of any type.
However, we should also point out a cup of Haagen Dazs or another premium ice cream costs about $3. For the same price you get a dozen ice cream sandwiches from Wal-Mart, or other stores.

For store brand sandwiches to be as natural as Haagen Dazs, the price would have to be significantly higher.

But even though there's nothing wrong with Walmart sandwiches, Watson misses old fashioned ice cream that melts quickly out in the sun.

But the story about J.J. Redick and his surreal first season with the Clippers captures the Donald Sterling experience as well as anyone's. At 29 years old and having made the calculated choice as a free agent last summer to come play for coach Doc Rivers and this talented team, Redick was exposed to the Sterling dysfunction from the start when his sign-and-trade deal to come to Los Angeles nearly fell apart after his four-year, $27-million deal had been agreed upon.

One of the alleged reasons? Sterling, the man whose racist comments sparked this whole furor, was believed to have had concerns about paying a white player that kind of money. He had once given white center Chris Kaman a five-year, $52 million deal, and how that contract panned out (or didn't, as Kaman played 195 games in the next four years of that deal and was traded to New Orleans with a year and a half left) appeared to be coloring Sterling's judgment on this deal. In a way, it was a mirror-image of the issue that would be front and center 10 months later.

"I've been told both ways: one, that he didn't want to pay me because I was white, and that he didn't want to pay me because I was a bench player," Redick said. "I didn't know (the deal almost fell apart) until after the fact. I just got a weird phone call from Doc on July 4, and I got off the phone and said to my wife, 'Something's going on.' He's like, 'You better play for me (expletive).' And I was like, 'Yeah, that's the plan. We figured this out two days ago, right?'

WASHINGTON -- Attitudes toward the Affordable Care Act continue to shift in the law’s favor, even in Republican-held congressional districts, a new poll set to be released Monday by a Democratic firm will show.

The poll, which was conducted by Democracy Corps in battleground congressional districts and shared in advance with The Huffington Post, shows 52 percent of respondents want to “implement and fix” the 2010 health care reform law versus 42 percent who want to “repeal and replace” it. Those numbers were 49 percent to 45 percent, respectively, in the firm's December poll.

According to the findings, 43 percent of respondents in districts held by a Republican member of Congress now say they oppose the health care law because it “goes too far.” That number was 48 percent in December. Opponents still outnumber the 41 percent who say they favor the law. However, Democracy Corps also registers 9 percent of respondents in Republican districts who say they oppose the law because it does not go far enough, a group that ostensibly includes a chunk of voters who wanted a more liberal piece of legislation. (How big that chunk is, is unclear.)

In Republican districts that are the most likely to flip to Democratic control in the 2014 elections, the shift of opinion toward the Affordable Care Act is equally pronounced. Fifty-four percent of respondents from those districts now support implementing and fixing the law versus 40 percent who support repealing and replacing it. In December, those numbers were 48 percent and 44 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, in Democratic districts, Obamacare seems headed to majority-support status. Democracy Corps records 44 percent of respondents in those districts as favoring the law with 44 percent opposing the law because it goes too far. Eight percent oppose the law because it does not go far enough -- a portion of those likely Democratic voters who wanted either single payer or a public option. In December, those numbers were 42 percent in favor, 46 percent opposed and 6 percent who wanted the law to go further.

As it turns out, the majority of Americans say they are okay with businesses adding a nominal surcharge to each bill in order to help pay for their employees health coverage.

That’s according to a new survey from Bankrate.com, which found that 68 percent of those polled say they don’t mind paying a higher bill so businesses can provide their workers with insurance. Younger people especially seemed to approve of this approach—about 64 percent of 18-29 year olds, while only 39 percent of people 65 and older said they were okay with this practice.

“While most Americans may be able to swallow an extra 25 cents on their bill at their favorite restaurant, a sizable chunk (22 percent) said they would stop going to the business. I can only imagine this number increasing if businesses try to charge too much,” Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman said in a statement.

Still, for the time being, the survey’s findings are more good news for the White House—which has enjoyed a slew of recent polls suggesting that the public’s perception of the ACA is beginning to improve

Police in Georgia forced a group of fifth graders to the ground at gunpoint this week as they attempted to build a tree fort in their own neighborhood.

According to 911 records, Henry County Police were called after a neighbor noticed the children “chopping off tree limbs,” an activity she claimed was hurting the environment and creating “tripping hazards.”

Police arrived on scene to find 11-year-old Omari Grant and his friends playing in a small patch of trees, prompting at least one officer to reportedly draw his firearm and force the boys to the ground.

“I was thinking that I don’t want to be shot today, so I just listened to what they said,” Grant said.

As the children lay face down, the officer allegedly screamed profanities as he forced them to spread their arms and legs. Grant’s mother, Janice Baptiste, detailed her son’s experience in an interview with WSB-TV.

“All he could get out at the time was, ‘Mom, he had a gun in my face, he had a gun in my face,’” Baptiste said. “So my son was of course traumatized by that.”

After the children were searched, Grant was taken back to his home by the officer, who also startled Baptiste with his unstable appearance.

“He just came with such an attitude,” Baptiste said. “His whole physical appearance was one of, ‘I’m Mr. Big and bad.’”

Grant says he is now hesitant to play outside in his own neighborhood, afraid of the very police he always looked up to.

“I learned that they’re supposed to help you, not make you feel scared to even come outside,” Grant said.

Edgar Dillard, whose wife made the 911 call, was reportedly stunned to hear of the neighbor boys’ encounter with police.

“Yeah, that’s pretty shocking to hear that a gun was pulled on a child,” Dillard said.

Baptiste has filed an excessive force complaint with the department, which has now opened an internal investigation. When questioned about the officer’s actions, Sgt. Joey Smith remained relatively tight-lipped.

“If it was justified then we’ll deal with it, if it wasn’t we’ll address it as well,” Smith said.

GREENSBURG, Ind. (March 21, 2014)—The father of a 6-year-old boy who fired a gunshot that fatally struck his 13-year-old half-brother has been arrested in connection with the incident.

Jason Forshee, 34, was taken into custody on charges of Neglect of a Dependent Child Resulting in Death, a Class A felony, and Dangerous Control of a Child, a Class C felony.

On March 11, Greensburg police responded to a house in the 1000 block of North Carver Street in reference to a person shot. When officers arrived, they located 13-year-old Craig Roberts suffering from a gunshot wound to the chest.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Forshee said he set his rifle on a table in the living room in order to clean it. He told authorities he removed the magazine, but he did not realize there was still a bullet in the chamber. He said he left the firearm unattended for just 10-15 seconds when he heard a “pop,” stated court documents. During that time, Forshee’s 6-year-old son fired the weapon, striking Roberts.